No cartel here says Pharmacy Board

Health Minister, John Rahael, made the charge in the Senate on Tuesday during debate on an act to amend the Pharmacy Act, which he piloted.

Rahael said the act should be amended because the board restricts the number of pharmacists in the country through various "obstacles" placed in the way of their education. He said members of the board are all pharmacists.

However, board president, Wazir Hosein, who owns Wazir’s Pharmacy in San Fernando, said, "We are not members of any cartel. I don’t belong to any, and neither does any of the board members. I don’t know if the minister does."

The Pharmacy Board, a self-regulating body, is currently made up of 550 pharmacists, Hosein said, adding that it is governed by an act of Parliament which has been implemented since 1962 to control the pharmacy profession. The Pharmacy Council is comprised of ten members, six of whom are voted into office by the general membership of the board.

The health minister appoints two, and the Medical Board the remaining two.

Hosein said, "We have been established to control the pharmacy profession, and that’s what we have been doing. Parliament has given us privileges, and we also have licences to sell and distribute pharmaceuticals and drugs in the country. We’re operating within the legal ambit of the law."

Confirming Rahael’s disclosures in the Upper House, Hosein added, "When someone wants to become a pharmacist, he applies to the board, and we take the particulars. We then go to the university with the matriculations. We are mandated to set guidelines for students," Hosein noted.

"We give the university the pharmacy programme to run.

"When the student is finished training, he comes back to the board, and we assess him and send him out to get practical experience as an intern. After his internship, he does a board exam. This is the process with everyone, including foreigners."

But the board president agrees that the legislation governing the profession needs changing.

"We wanted our code of ethics to be part of the legislation," the president replied. "So we could have teeth to deal with errant pharmacists.

"We also want legislation to control the sale and distribution of herbal drugs."